Does the Stage Create the Actor?

A lot of coding workshops have sprung up in the last ten years,
ranging from one-day events to teach people the basics of HTML
to months-long internships designed to turn participants into professional programmers.
Having just had yet another stranger solve
yet another problem
for me on Stack Overflow,
I'm wondering:
to what extent are Stack Overflow and similar sites responsible for the creation of these workshops?
SO is a way for people without degrees and other certifications to show what they know;
without it,
would people be quite so keen to take part in unofficial training?